The Egyptian Public Prosecution renewed the detention of Ahmed Al-Tabbakh, a professor at the Faculty of Dentistry at Misr University of Science and Technology, for an additional 15 days pending investigations.
Al-Tabbakh was charged with “joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and inciting violence.” These charges are regularly used by the Egyptian government against its dissidents and their relatives.
During his interrogation session, Al-Tabbakh revealed that he had been prevented from receiving family visits or any medical treatment despite suffering from diabetes.
Al-Tabbakh also stated that he had previously fallen into a comma after being denied his medical treatment.
Al-Tabbakh’s family had previously announced his forcible disappearance on February 22, confirming that they had contacted Attorney General Hamada Al-Sawy, the Ministry of Interior, and the Council of Ministers to know his whereabouts, before being informed that he is held in Giza Central Prison.
Al-Tabbakh’s family stated that three people who identified themselves as officers in the National Security Service summoned him at the police station, before they searched the house and confiscated his personal belongings, including his phone, his computer, his daughter’s phone, and a home surveillance camera.
Since July 2013, the Egyptian authorities have been waging an unprecedented crackdown on dissidents and critics, arresting thousands in politically motivated arrests, many of whom have been forcibly disappeared or held without trial for years on baseless terrorism-related charges, in very poor detention conditions.
